There are really only three highly valuable free agents this off-season -- Jason Bay(notes), Matt Holliday(notes), and John Lackey(notes) - and the Yankees aren't expected to go after any of them, according to the New York Post.

It looks like the Yankees are closing up the wallet a little and letting a whole lot of money flow in right now instead of out.

The team may be at the point of no return on expenditures, anyway. The Yanks will spend $100 million next season Alex Rodriguez(notes), Sabathia, Teixeira and Derek Jeter(notes) alone and have another $70 million already committed to 13 other players from Kei Igawa(notes) to Juan Miranda(notes).

Holliday's agent, Scott Boras, apparently wants him to be paid around the same as Teixeira (eight years, $181 million), Lackey is expected to get around $100 million for five years, and Bay could get around $90 million for five years.

Red Sox fans have got to hope the 25-year-old outfielder can do better than hitting .259. He reportedly won't be expected to be an incredible defensive presence.

Contractually, Hermida has two years to show that Epstein's prediction was true.

It's looking like the team is going to buy him out for $1 million, which is still a nice payday for a guy who didn't play after mid-July due to knee surgery. The rumor is that the team will try to re-sign the 11-year vet after that.

Cincinnati GM Walt Jocketty has met with Hernandez's agent. "We've made some progress. I don't know if we're close. But we'll try to work something out," he said.

But that deal isn't apparently finished just yet, according to the Kansas City Star. And it might never be. As of midnight last night, none of the players had supposedly been informed of the trade.

"We're in discussions with a lot of clubs about a lot of things," Royals general manager Dayton Moore told the Star. "There is nothing to announce yet, and we won't comment (about trade rumors) until there is something to announce." Drat!

The New York Post is reporting that the team won't be picking up his $9.1 million option for next season. Why should it after he pitched only 29 1/3 innings and gave up 18 runs in the process. Not exactly what you want from a reliever, particularly one who was the centerpiece to a three-team deal that involved the Seattle Mariners and Cleveland Indians. We went through all that trouble for this?

Putz has a $1 million buyout clause. Mets GM Omar Minaya is sure to take it. And watch Putz take some kind of incentive-laden deal somewhere else.

General manager Brian Cashman has apparently been saying that he'd like the team to get younger and more athletic and more versatile (and you'd hope cheaper), so paying Matsui a load of dough to DH doesn't seem to fit that mold. Damon is at least out in the field.

Catcher Jorge Posada(notes) will turn 39 next season so he may want to DH some. Alex Rodriguez(notes) may be getting some hip surgery this off-season so this team isn't getting any younger. Though they sure looked like a bunch of 6-year-olds bouncing up and down after the last out last night.

So Yankees fans may want to spend a little extra time cheering for the Series MVP Matsui when he floats by during the parade. Word has it he could be moving to the Great Northwest to play for the Seattle Mariners.

And the Phils have him for the relatively cheap price of $9 million next year. But there have apparently been discussions within the organization of trying to get a long-term extension done this off-season, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.

"Clearly, it's on our minds, but we haven't made a decision if we will yet," general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. said before Game 6.

While Lee was incredible in the postseason and pretty dang good in the regular season since joining the Phils, going 7-4 with a 3.39 ERA, one never knows what will happen so there are some in the organization who apparently want to wait and be sure Lee doesn't turn into the next Cole Hamels(notes), who was the MVP of last year's NLCS and World Series and then a disappointment during the regular season this year and even bigger one in the postseason.

Lee will likely want some kind of similar deal to the one his best friend and former teammate with the Cleveland Indians, CC Sabathia(notes), got last off-season from the New York Yankees: seven years for $161 million.

And now after all that the lefthander may be returning to play for Seattle, according to the Detroit Free Press. The 35-year-old free-agent lefty has apparently told the M's that Seattle is on the top of his list of teams to play for in 2010.

Washburn was a whole lot better for Seattle than he was for Detroit. He went 8-6 with a 2.64 ERA in 20 starts for the M's and was the American League pitcher of the month in July with Seattle.

Hernandez started off the season with the New York Mets and then got released with a 5.47 ERA and 135 innings under his belt. His ERA came down a whopping .11 when he pitched for Washington later in the year.

He does like to pitch and will stay in games, but he needs a lot of run support: In the last two years, he's pitched 363 2/3s innings and has a 5.74 ERA.

He'll make $12.1 million next year but is free to roam the streets of any city he wants after next season if a new deal can't be worked out.

It looks like Red Sox GM Theo Epstein is plenty aware of the big bucks it will take to retain Beckett: "He's put himself in a position to be valued very highly by us," he said to WEEI, but he wasn't predicting a definite deal: "Those things have a way of taking care of themselves. ... We'll see what happens."

Now it's looking like Hurdle may join the Texas Rangers as the hitting coach, according to MLB.com. Hurdle had the same job with the Rockies from 1997 to 2001. The Rockies were at the front of the National League pack in runs scored for three of those seasons and only two runs off the lead during the other two. Hurdle also helped guide Larry Walker to the 1997 Most Valuable Player Award. Walker, Vinny Castilla(notes), and Todd Helton(notes) also won Silver Sluggers under his watchful eye.

So the Rangers appear to want a little bit of that magic. First thing they might want to do is find a way to thin out the air at their stadium.

Will be interesting to see if Hurdle has any interest in bringing Milton Bradley(notes) back to the Rangers, which some team execs supposedly would like to do since the Chicago Cubs want to unload him and the Rangers lacked a certain punch without Bradley in the lineup this past season.

There is apparently some belief that this indicates that Mattingly and his current employer, the Los Angeles Dodgers, are formalizing some kind of plan for hitting coach Mattingly to take over for Joe Torre when Torre finally decides to call it quits.

Meanwhile, the Nats apparently want to name a new manager within the week. Interim manager Jim Riggleman is a possibility as well as former Seattle Mariners and Arizona Diamondbacks manager Bob Melvin.

Whatever happens, the coaches have all been promised jobs within the organization for next year.

Bradley was with the team in 2008 when he had a .321 average and led the American League in OPS (on base plus slugging). The loss of Bradley to the Chicago Cubs is part of the reason the Rangers scored 115 fewer runs in 2009 than in 2008.

He's got two more years and about $20 million left on his deal with the Cubs but they want to unload Bradley. Who wouldn't want a guy who injured himself while trying to go after a first baseman after he had gotten on base, confronted a television announcer in the press box for comparing him to Josh Hamilton(notes), and complained of the "negativity" in Chicago.

Sports Illustrated has it that the two sides are planning to meet up soon enough but GM Frank Wren tells MLB.com that no such plans exist.

Other teams supposedly willing to throw a boatload of cash at the 21-year-old lefty Chapman to get him are the Baltimore Orioles, Boston Red Sox, Chicago White Sox, Chicago Cubs, Detroit Tigers, Seattle Mariners. New York Yankees, Oakland Athletics, San Francisco Giants, and St. Louis Cardinals. In short, everybody wants him.

Last night, Victorino let it be known that his team isn't cheating and that Bowa has no idea what he's talking about, according to the New York Post. "I guess he knows something that I don't know about, obviously," Victorino said. "You know, everybody makes excuses. Everybody is going to find a reason. For Bowa to come out and say something like that if he doesn't know what he's talking about, if he doesn't have cold, hard facts, he shouldn't say something like that.

The New York Mets actually had the sneaking suspicion that the team was stealing signs back in 2007 and even using a video camera in center field to do so. The Mets went so far as to ask the league to investigate, which ended up going nowhere.

Plus, if the team was cheating and stealing signs, they sure aren't doing a good job of using the info. As Victorino points out, it didn't exactly help them win Games 3 or 4.

"I think some people on the management side have done a pretty good job of getting out to the public that it's not going to be a strong market," said Weiner. "I think that remains to be seen."

Hmmm. Maybe it's America's recent economic woes that might help keep prices low and the fact that such big-name free agents such as last winter's C.C. Sabathia(notes) and Mark Teixeira(notes) aren't available this off-season.

Other things that will be on his mind include having a shortened schedule and changing things to have day games played when teams are about to travel.

Phillies pitcher Cole Hamels(notes) apparently doesn't seem to think so. He's reportedly already saying that he can't wait for the whole thing to be over. Hamels has had a tough year being an average pitcher after a stellar 2008 that left him as the MVP of both the National League Championship Series and the World Series. And his postseason has been absolutely lousy, unless you count the birth of his first child, which happened just after his Game 2 NLDS start.

Folks in Philly are apparently unhappy with the comments of Hamels, especially since he could be the guy who starts a seventh game if the Phils make it that far, according to the Kansas City Star. Phillies manager Charlie Manuel simply sees this as a case of a young guy who hasn't dealt with real adversity before.

Oh, and take heart, Phillies fans, those Yankees and Tigers won those Series with the last two games on the road.

Charlotte-based attorney Bill Diehl, who charges $1,000 an hour, handled Mayfield's case against NASCAR to protest the suspension for methamphetamine use and he's saying Mayfield hasn't paid him anything. Mayfield has apparently dumped Diehl as his lawyer and now has Mark Geragos at the helm. Geragos has repped a slew of celebs and big cases, including ones for Michael Jackson, Winona Ryder, and everybody's favorite husband, Scott Peterson.

Mayfield has spent part of the last few months crying poor but Diehl says he's not so bad off and he is determined to get the dough owed him.

Rumor has it that Major League Baseball execs would like the McCourts to get out of the ownership business (or at least stop leaking salacious details about each other until after a stellar World Series finishes up). Of course a sale of this team isn't coming anytime soon.

There is suspicion that the league didn't like the way the owners handled the Manny Ramirez(notes) performance-enhancing suspension, either, as the McCourts never required Ramirez to acknowledge his mistake and continued to provide Ramirez with personal bating practice and drivers, etc. It looked like Ramirez was on vacation instead of serving a 50-game suspension.

After all, the guy had a career year and hit 36 homers and drove in 116 runs this year. Plus, the 31-year-old Canadian became an American this year over the July 4th weekend.

The San Francisco Giants and New York Mets are expected to get into the bidding for Bay and either could take it higher than $15 million but one thing the Red Sox have going for it is that Bay was raised by a major fan of the team. Bay apparently wore a Red Sox onesie as a baby and had posters of Jim Rice and Carl Yastrzemski hanging up as a kid.

The word is that Mauer is a patient man and isn't taking offense at the Twins' lack of energy toward signing him to an extension. The man so known for his sideburns that the team had a "Joe Mauer Sideburns Night" this summer apparently very interested in staying with the Twins, which isn't a shocker when MLB points out that his agent also represented such fellas as Cal Ripken Jr. and Kirby Puckett who are both famous for staying with an organization for the entire length of their playing careers.

The site also reports that former Mauer housemate Justin Morneau(notes) will be recovered from wrist surgery in four weeks and should be totally ready to go in spring training.

The team has apparently asked to meet wtith Chapman and his agent next week. Other teams that are after the young fella include the New York Yankees and Bsoton Red Sox so the M's should expect bidding to go pretty high. Chapman was supposed to throw a bullpen session in Boston yesterday but the weather kept that from happenng.

The Detroit Tigers, St. Louis Cardinals, New York Mets, and Baltimore Orioles have all also supposedly expressed interest in landing Chapman.

Hudson could make more dough than that on the free-agent market but apparently would like to stay in Atlanta so much that he's willing to discount himself. The deal is supposedly going to get done before week's end. Not bad for a guy who spent most of 2009 recovering from Tommy John surgery and going 2-1 with a 3.61 ERA.

This likely means the Braves will trade away Javier Vazquez(notes) or Derek Lowe(notes) this winter for a quality bat.

Who knows if it is true, but that's part of what led to her firing, Frank apparently said. Well, that coupled with that she "undermined the chain of command by not reporting directly to him," according to court filings. Guess Jamie could say the same thing about Frank not listening to her orders. It's likely she'll have a few doozies up her sleeve that will come out along the way. These two seem ready to divulge each and every dirty detail about the other.

It's not looking like this will be a good off-season for the Dodgers. What player would want to sign with a club in such flux?

There was some talk about Arizona trying to renegotiate a longer deal but Webb apparently wanted nothing to do with that so the team just went with the option year and will hope to convince him to stay longer another time.

Former National League Cy Young award winner Webb was out for the season with shoulder surgery, appearing in only one game. But he's viewed as a key to next year's rotation. The team is hoping he can return to 2008 form when he won 22 games.

Jamie apparently made $2 million a year from the Dodgers while she says Frank was making between $5 million and $6 million. Their players must pity such poor folks.

Jamie is now asking for her job back along with monthly spousal support of $320,967. Or, if she doesn't get her job back with the team, only $487,634. That's a drop in the bucket for a couple supposedly worth $1.2 billion, according to Jamie's numbers.

She's saying that Frank has been trying to kick her out of team management since July 2008 when he apparently tried to move her office out of Dodgers Stadium. Then he apparently had her name removed from a wide variety of Dodgers printed materials.

Court papers also showed that before McCourts took over the team in 2004 after purchasing it for $431 million, it had lost a boatload of cash in the preceding years: $57 million in 2000, $85 million in 2001, $83 million in 2002, and $78 million in 2003,

Byrnes, who has one year and more than $11 million left on his contract, apparently went to a meeting with his bosses last week that seemed to lead him to think he'll be traded, according to the Arizona Republic. "I would prefer to be here," Byrnes said. "But if they don't see me in a role that's going to contribute, then it's not a great situation for either of us." He's got a no-trade clause so he has control over where he ends up. One has gotta think he wants to be somewhere that actually wants him.

Byrnes noted that he would be disappointed to end the relationship and that he regrets trying play through a hamstring injury last year.

Unfortunately for Matthews, he signed a five-year, $50-million contract in 2007. He was inured in the second half of that year and the team then brought in Torii Hunter(notes) in the off-season to a five-year, $90 million deal to play the center-field spot Matthews thought was his. He's been playing backup ever since.

He wants out, either by trade or release. "I don't expect to be back; it's time to move on," Matthews told the Times. "I'm ready to play for an organization that wants me to play every day. This organization has other plans, and that's OK."

Rusty Greer spent more than a decade with the team and had a .301 career batting average. He's apparently discussed the possibility of becoming the team's hitting instructor with general manager Jon Daniels in recent days.
Greer has been out of the majors for a few years, giving hitting instruction privately and with the Texas Collegiate League.

The Rangers are apparently expected to have its list of finalists for the gig pared down by week's end.

The Yankees are apparently flip-flopping between adding left-handed hitter Eric Hinske(notes) or a 12th pitcher, according to the New York Post. The pitcher in question is supposedly right-handed reliever Brian Bruney(notes). "You could see us with 12 pitchers and you could see us change our roster," Yanks general manager Brian Cashman coyly told the Post.

Meanwhile, there's a rumor in Philly that reliever Brett Myers(notes) might be back on the roster because the team can use as many pitching arms as it can get.

Other than Lee and the one game Pedro Martinez(notes) pitched against the Los Angeles Dodgers, the starting rotation for the Phillies this postseason hasn't been stellar so Manager Charlie Manuel is apparently thinking he'll use Lee in three games and have him go up against CC Sabathia in Games 1, 4, and 7. That would leave Martinez to pitch in Games 2 and possibly 6, and last year's hero but this year's inconsistent postseason starter, Cole Hamels(notes), to pitch Game 3. That leaves a Game 5 and possibly Game 6 hole for Manuel to fill. He isn't saying anything about who he's pitching when so you can expect him to throw Joe Blanton(notes) and likely National League Rookie of the Year J.A. Happ(notes) in there and hope they have stronger outings than they've had already this postseason.

So far Manuel's chess playing has worked out so Phillies fans are hoping he's got one more set of pitching moves up his sleeve.

The Tigers are apparently hoping to meet with Chapman and see if he's a good fit. "We're basically just at the interest level. Because of the nature, I think it's a situation where they're going to take the time to allow clubs to spend some time with the player and see who he is," said Tom Moore, Detroit's Director of International Scouting to MLB.

Chapman will likely get more than the $32 million that the New York Yankees dug up for fellow Cuban defector Jose Contreras(notes) in 2002, according to Sports Illustrated. And why not? The guy can supposedly hit 102 mph on the radar gun. The Yankees, of course, are in the hunt for Chapman as well and had him as a guest at Game 6 of the ALCS.

Teams that supposedly have serious interest include the Baltimore Orioles, Boston Red Sox, Chicago White Sox, Chicago Cubs, New York Mets, Oakland Athletics, and St. Louis Cardinals.

The Toronto Blue Jays are apparently saying that they don't have the dough to make a competitive offer for Chapman.

The Los Angeles Times is saying that now the slugger's six-year, $85 million contract is expiring, it's not looking likely that Guerrero will be back with the team even though he would like to be.

Working against him is that the fella who turns 35 in February missed 56 games with a torn chest muscle and a strained right hamstring. Plus, he only 15 dingers this year and drove in 50 runs. Not exactly what you want from your DH.

The word in Houston is that GM Ed Wade offered a two-year deal plus a one-year option to Acta, according to MLB. Cleveland apparently offered a three-year deal with a one-year option. Negotiations were still going on as late as Saturday with the 40-year-old Acta meeting with Wade and the head of baseball operations for the Astros, Tal Smith, at Minute Maid Park. "We met, and we made an offer, and we knew that he was scheduled to have another conversation with Cleveland [Saturday] night," Wade said.

Guess Wade was banking on Acta having some sentimental reasons to join the club. After all, the Astros signed him out of the Dominican Republic when he was 17 and he played for the organization for six years before being a coach and manager for 10 years within the Astros system. The three fellas the Astros will now supposedly focus on are former Astros manager Phil Garner, Boston Red Sox bench coach Brad Mills(notes), and the guy who was the team's interim manager after Cecil Cooper got the can on Sept. 21, Dave Clark. The hope is apparently that a new manager will be named before the World Series between the Philadelphia Phillies and the New York Yankees gets underway on Wednesday.

The rumor is that the 34-year-old Hudson could be getting $9 million (or more) a year. Discussions have apparently taken place over whether he should get a fourth guaranteed year or an option year on the deal.

The team currently has a $12 million option for next year, which it has to pick up before three days after the World Series ends.

The partially torn muscle is apparently near his abdomen. He supposedly put off surgery in late June and certainly isn't going to have it now until the World Series ends. He claims that he doesn't even think about it when he plays and that he isn't generally bothered by it.

Supposedly Ibanez was given the choice in June to have surgery or to go on the DL and rest before playing with the injury. Before deciding to hold off, Ibanez supposedly went up to Toronto to see a neuromuscular specialist and then visited a surgeon in Philly to get the second- and third-opinion lowdown.

Frank fired Jamie as CEO of the team this week and now Jamie is apparently trying to line up investors so she can try to take over sole ownership of the club. The Times reports that she has contacted a few "prominent baseball figures" to figure out the direction of the team.

"Jamie is disappointed and saddened by her termination," attorney Dennis Wasser said Thursday to the paper. "As co-owner of the Dodgers, she will address this and all other issues in the courtroom."

Looks like it's going to be a long and interesting off-season for the Dodgers.

Well, the 36-year-old Franklin also couldn't actually convert a one-run game into a save for the final month of the season. After Sept. 5, he had three blown saves, one actual save, and an ERA of 6.14. And he blew a save in the postseason against the Los Angeles Dodgers, though that wasn't totally his fault. A dropped fly ball in left field ended up costing him.

Despite all that, the Cardinals are apparently committed to using Franklin as the closer for next season, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The team extended his contract in September.

"I think Ryan Franklin is a quality closer," manager Tony La Russa told the paper, and GM John Mozeliak reportedly feels the same way. Now if they could just convince Cardinals fans to feel the same way right now.

ESPN's Keith Law was an assistant to former Blue Jays general manager JP Ricciardi and he shared yesterday that a few teams tried to snag Cruz from the Blue Jays and offered some folks that became big names. The new York Mets apparently wanted to hand over David Wright(notes) for Cruz and Ricciardi said, "I'm not trading a major league player for some guy in the (Low Class-A) Sally League."

Another player the Blue Jays could have had for Cruz was Rafael Soriano(notes), but the Blue Jays wanted the Seattle Mariners to throw in Clint Nageotte(notes) in order to bring Cruz back to the Northwest where he had started his career.

Ricciardi obviously didn't go for either trade and Cruz eventually left the team to join the San Francisco Giants.

The team has repeatedly said that its finances hadn't been affected by the Madoff fiasco and that everything was on track for more big spending this off-season for the team that ended up 23 games out of first in the National League East when the regular season closed up shop this year. That may have been true but things have possibly changed. The Mets were actually the recipients of around $50 million in actual funds from Madoff's supposed investments. Now folks who got scammed by Madoff and made absolutely nothing are filing "clawback" suits in attempts to get back their money that was never invested, according to the New York Post. The money the Mets received never actually came from investments. It was the cash of those asking Madoff to invest.

Bottom line: the Wilpons and the Mets may have some financial hardships this off-season that were previously unpredicted. And that won't exactly help them land Matt Holliday(notes).

Fox26 is reporting that Wade has the number of candidates down to four: former Washington Nationals manager Manny Acta, Boston Red Sox bench coach Brad Mills(notes), former Astros manager Phil Garner, and interim manager Dave Clark.

Wade reportedly considered ten different folks in the first round of interviews and then chopped his list down. One of the fellas in the first round was supposedly Los Angeles Dodgers hitting coach Don Mattingly.

Whatever happens, Wade will surely do better than the parachuting trip he took in 2007 just before he was hired by the Astros when he managed to finish the jump off by getting caught in a tree and hanging up there till somebody could come untangle him.

Hoyer, who has been employed by the Red Sox since 2002 when he was 28, has been interviewed by the Washington Nationals and Pittsburgh Pirates in years past for GM jobs but it looks like he's going to get the gig this time around.

The former star pitcher for Wesleyan University (who reportedly still has the school's saves records) has never lived away from New England.

The Boston Red Sox have reportedly told Towers that they would make a job for him if he wanted to come to New England, according to the Boston Globe. Since Red Sox assistant GM Jed Hoyer is a supposed frontrunner to take over the job Towers left behind, Towers could end up taking Hoyer's spot in Boston if Hoyer gets the job in San Diego.

Of course, if the Red Sox are sniffing around, you gotta believe the New York Yankees are interested, too. Towers has a pal in Yankees GM Brian Cashman so it's believed that the Yanks will eventually offer him a position as well.

The San Francisco Giants, St. Louis Cardinals, Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees, and Atlanta Braves are expected to make runs at Holliday as well, but no team has more of a PR job to do with its fans this off-season than the Mets, who started the years as supposed contenders and ended the season with a bunch of injured veterans and a second-to-last finish in the National League East. Holliday, who spent the season with the Oakland Athletics and Cardinals, supposedly wants to stay in the National League.

Sports Illustrated also reports that the Mets aren't likely to throw their dough at pitcher Roy Halladay(notes) and will instead to try and find a nice, steady mound presence that isn't going to break the bank.

The four lucky fellas are Manny Acta, Bobby Valentine, Torey Lovullo, and Don Mattingly. Former Washington Nationals manager Acta is supposedly the frontrunner. The Cleveland Plain Dealer points out that the 40-year-old would be an ideal choice if the team wants to appeal to the one third of its probable 25-man roster in 2010 that is Latino.

The 59-year-old Valentine is thought to likely be to expensive for the Indians since he made $4 million coaching in Japan last year. Current Los Angeles Dodgers hitting coach Don Mattingly may be too mellow. He's also supposedly being considered by the Washington Nationals, where Jim Riggleman would like to keep the job that he took over for Acta. And Indians Triple-A manager Lovullo has never coached in the majors and wouldn't represent the "turning the page" vibe that the Indians supposedly want to show their fans with the next managerial hire.

Of course, with all the losing Acta did in Washington, he may not be a real page-turner for Indians fans, either.

Tracy got to take over the Rocks this summer when his predecessor, Clint Hurdle, got canned in May. Tracy moved up from his spot as bench coach and led the team to a 74-42 record. With that kind of stat, Tracy is likely to win National League manager of the year this season.

His deal will apparently be done as soon as O'Dowd signs.

Red Sox coaches Tim Bogar and Brad Mills(notes) are both in consideration for the gig and both apparently interviewed for the job yesterday. Mills got his turn in the morning and Bogar went in the afternoon. Bogar is thought to have some slight advantage since he played for the Astros and then managed in for the Astros in the minor leagues.

Other candidates include former Houston manager Phil Garner and former Washington Nationals manager Manny Acta.

Of course, Red Sox coaches are used to being interviewed for head-caching jobs. Last year, Mills and DeMarlo Hale both talked to the Seattle Mariners about its opening, though obviously neither got it.

The 27-year-old his 40 dingers and 99 RBIs this past season and led the majors in walks, which helped him gain a .407 on-base percentage.

He's "only" supposed to make $4.75 million next year and the Padres have a $5.5 million option for 2011. But the question is whether the Red Sox have anything the Padres want to make the exchange happen.

Adding fuel to the fire on this potential deal is that Red Sox assistant GMs Jed Hoyer and Ben Cherington are both supposedly in the running to become the Padres' next general manager. So if either one of those gets brought on board in San Diego, a smoother trade path clearly opens between the two teams.

Hargrove, of course, managed the Indians from 1991 to 1999 and took the team to the postseason five years in a row, losing the World Series twice (to the Atlanta Braves in 1995 and the Florida Marlins in 1997). He went on to manage the Baltimore Orioles and Seattle Mariners.

Now he wants to return to the helm in Cleveland. And who can blame him? He's apparently keeping himself busy during the summer months by managing the Liberal (Kansas) BeeJays, a semi-professional team that he played for college.

Unfortunately, for Hargrove it doesn't appear that he's even in the running for the gig. The Cleveland Plain Dealer is saying that he hasn't even been interviewed for the job and that the team is at the point of cutting its list of candidates down to five. Former Washington Nationals coach Manny Acta is believed to be one of those five as well as former New York Mets manager Bobby Valentine. Others interviewed have been Travis Fryman (manager of Indians' single-A affiliate) and Torey Lovullo (Indians' triple-A manager).

Damon was an offensive force during the regular season, hitting 24 homers and 36 doubles but he disappeared in the divisions series, where he hit .083. His hope is that the four days off between the close of that series and the opening of this one will help him find the ball again. If he doesn't, it may mean he doesn't return to the Bronx.

He had hip surgery back in early June and wasn't expected to return this season at all but he worked pretty hard to get back. Phillies fans were hoping his arrival would help solve the team's massive bullpen problems at the time. Instead, the 29-year-old had a 6.43 ERA in eight games. He followed that up with pitching 2/3s of an inning in the Colorado series and issuing two walks in the process.

Now it's not even clear if Myers will be back with the Phillies next year. Manager Charlie Manuel says he sees Myers as being in spring training right now. And unfortunately for him, the rest of the team is much further down the path right about now.

The rumor is that Abreu is not happy with the initial offer from the team, according to Sports Illustrated. The offer is supposedly for about $16 million over two years. (Who would take that?) Abreu supposedly would like more.

The right fielder is making $5 million this season on the one-year deal he signed after the New York Yankees tossed him aside. Incentives have paid Abreu another million bucks so far this season. His main competitors in the free-agent market will be Matt Holliday(notes) and Jason Bay(notes). But Abreu, who had 30 stolen bags this year, turns 36 in March, which will make some teams skittish on signing any multi-year deal.

Now it's looking like the Braves still have a chance to keep Hudson. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is reporting that Hudson might be able to be signed by Atlanta for a three-year deal worth somewhere between $27 million and $30 million.

Not that Atlanta actually really needs him. Without him, the team could have a rotation of Derek Lowe(notes), Javier Vazquez(notes), Jair Jurrjens(notes), Kenshin Kawakami(notes) and Tommy Hanson(notes).

No matter where he ends up, his medical records will be scrutinized since he only started seven games for the Braves this year, going 2-1 with a 3.61 ERA, after returning from Tommy John surgery.

Club chairman Bill DeWitt Jr. and general manager John Mozeliak are likely hoping that God would like Pujols to remain with the Cardinals till his career is over.

The 29-year-old probable National League MVP becomes a free agent in 2012 and it doesn't appear that Pujols will make the Cards twist in the wind for that long. He also mentioned to the AP that having a competitive team that has a chance for the postseason certainly will help him consider signing on the dotted line.

So Giuliani and his wife were moved to the box seats right next to the dugout, where they sat for the second game as well. Well, it appears that current Mayor Mike Bloomberg would also like to have those prime seats that would give him plenty of television face time as he runs for a third term as mayor.

A Bloomberg "insider" is saying the story is bogus, though, and that Bloomberg will sit where he always sits a few rows back. It's certain the cameras will find him and Giuliani both at some point in the game no matter where they sit.

He apparently had a phone conversation with Indians GM Mark Shapiro earlier this week. He'll talk to the Houston Astros tomorrow about their open managerial slot as well. "I'm excited and honored to be part of this process," Acta told the paper. He says he thinks will be "very exciting in Cleveland very soon."

Guess once you're a manager somewhere, you're automatically on the list everywhere else.

As Tim Brown of Yahoo! Sports reminds readers, the San Diego Padres had a similar situation recently when the owner Moores got very publicly and contentiously divorced and the team ended up getting sold last spring.

Guess we should have seen this coming. The McCourts didn't sit close together during the NLDS series against the St. Louis Cardinals. Obviously, this shouldn't change anything for the division series other than some seating arrangements but it will certainly be felt this off-season when free agents are starting to be signed.